Mentuhotep (queen)

Around 1832 John Gardner Wilkinson copied inscriptions of a coffin naming a queen with the same name. The original coffin is now lost. On the coffin it is stated that she was the daughter of the vizier Senebhenaf and of a woman called Sobekhotep. The inside of the coffin was decorated with different spells, many of them belong to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Her coffin is one of the earliest sources for this funerary composition. It is not fully clear whether the coffin and the canopic chest were found in the same tomb. Giuseppe Passalacqua described the tomb and mentions an anthropoid coffin richly decorated with figures of deities. However, the coffin copied by Wilkinson is rectangular and not decorated with figures of gods. Therefore, Herbert E. Winlock, looking at the evidence concluded that there were two queens with the name Mentuhotep. One was the wife of king Djehuti, the other one is known from her coffin.[2]

Passalacqua found a canopic chest with cosmetic boxes. The objects were later sold to Berlin. With the cosmetic box were found some other objects, including several alabaster vessels. However, these vessels belong according to their type to the 25th Dynasty.[3]

The canopic chest was given to queen Mentuhotep by king Djehuti, as indicated in a dedication inscribed on the box. The original canopic chest is inscribed for the king.[4] Inside of it were found two cosmetic boxes, made of wood and papyrus.[5] Inside the box were found alabaster vessels and a cosmetic spoon.

Cover for the cosmetic box of queen Mentuhotep.